Life Game In Other World
Chapter 765: Painting and Sword (Two-in-One Mega - , Seeking Monthly Passes)

Chapter 765: Chapter 765: Painting and Sword (Two-in-One Mega Chapter, Seeking Monthly Passes)

Sitting in the moving SUV, He Ao held a hamburger in his hand, eating while turning his head to look at the street outside the window.

Wint City’s urban planning somewhat resembled an inverted pyramid, with each district shaped almost like a long strip, arranged layer by layer.

The largest ’base’ of the tower was the Storm Zone, closest to the Storm Sea, followed by the Aka District and the Novite District, with the ’peak’ of the pyramid, the Cloud District, being the farthest from the Storm Sea and also the smallest area.

The Fish Cake Bar where He Ao had started from was located near the border of the Storm Zone and the Aka District, and now the SUV had passed through the Aka District and entered the Novite District.

After crossing some invisible boundary, the surrounding old residences transformed into rows of neat, high-rise buildings, with the roars of machinery echoing within them.

The Novite District was the most ’special’ among the four districts of Wint City. Theoretically, the Novite District was not fit for habitation, which was reflected in its lack of residential design.

The entire district was Wint City’s Industrial District, with United Industries’ machines endlessly operating within those imposing buildings.

Some large buses passed by He Ao’s SUV, cramped with tired individuals standing. A few people noticed He Ao’s vehicle, gave it a curious glance, and then quickly averted their gaze.

The crowded buses barely allowed people to move their hands to play with their bracelets, let alone pull out their smartphones. Many had earphones stuffed in their ears, playing music or listening to live broadcasts.

Some leaned against others in the crowd, their eyes tightly shut as if fast asleep.

The vast majority of the employees in the Novite District lived in the Aka District. They took paid buses provided by United Industries to get to work and then took the same buses back to the Aka District after their shifts.

To accommodate more passengers, these buses usually had no seats and no drivers, operating on an autonomous driving system.

While Wint City never restricted the movement of people, the majority living in the Aka or Storm Zones might never visit the Cloud District in their lifetimes.

He Ao watched as the buildings in front receded one by one, feeling the SUV travel over the worn and poorly maintained streets.

He looked up toward the edge of the road ahead, where there was an electronic sensor.

This sensor detected an electronic chip embedded in the vehicle’s license plate to determine its current location.

This electronic sensor was not owned by the government of Wint City, but by United Industries.

The factories, buildings, and roads in the Novite District were all assets of United Industries.

All vehicles driving on these roads had to pay a ’toll’ to United Industries, a fee calculated based on distance and time.

This toll’s bill would be sent to the email address linked with the vehicle and deducted from the owner’s credit card account.

This toll was not cheap, yet the roads in the Novite District were hardly in good shape. Although a tad better than those in the Storm and Aka Districts, they were just passable.

He Ao bit into his hamburger, withdrew his gaze, and felt the surge of Transcendent power within him.

’Secret Watcher’ had two abilities. The first was ’Spiritual Observation,’ which He Ao had previously mastered. This ability granted him a ’second sight’ overlaid on his original field of vision.

This sight allowed him to clearly see the ’soul’ of any life around him, even without activating his Super Memory, and sense the ’power’ pulsating within them.

If he could bear the whispering pollution by his ear, he could even overdraw on his life to enter the ’Boundary of Truth’ he had previously accessed.

This ability enabled He Ao to clearly distinguish Transcendents hidden in a crowd and understand things that were beyond human comprehension.

Naturally, this also meant he was more likely to get involved in dangerous Transcendent events.

Moreover, those never-ending whispers that seemed to emanate from Truth itself always echoed in his ears.

Additionally, this second sight could not be turned off. Even with his eyes closed, he could clearly ’see’ everything around him.

The ’Secret Watcher’s second ability was an extension of ’Spiritual Observation,’ which He Ao dubbed ’Soul-Intimidating Gaze.’

When He Ao focused his ’gaze’ on a specific person’s soul, that person’s deeper essence would be laid bare by ’Spiritual Observation.’

At the same time, the ’whispers’ circling He Ao would attempt to follow his gaze and ’Peer into the Truth’ of the soul under his scrutiny.

In reality, this meant that the person scrutinized by He Ao would feel a shiver from their soul, become temporarily unable to fully control their body, and exhibit a range of stress reactions.

In theory, if He Ao watched someone for an extended period, that person might become tainted and driven to madness by those ’whispers.’

In other words, He Ao could potentially kill someone just by ’staring’ at them.

However, even a normal soul had a certain order to it, and introducing contamination through ’soul gazing’ was challenging and required a significant amount of time.

A higher-rank Talent Sequence walking the same path as ’Secret Watcher’ might achieve the feat of staring someone to death, but for a C-level ’Secret Watcher,’ it was still rather difficult.

As such, in actual combat, its primary use was to trigger mistakes in an opponent’s actions by influencing their soul.

In fact, these abilities had emerged during his ascension process, and He Ao had been unconsciously using them, but it was only now, after complete ascension, that they stabilized.

Strictly speaking, this was not a normal ’ascension.’

Yiluo was not a Transcendent. The "Secret Watcher" Talent Sequence probably came from the "plaque" which seemed to be engraved with a Wizard’s emblem, "Eye of Truth," brought back by Yiluo’s father.

That plaque should be a Transcendent item that was extraordinary in some way but did not show its magic due to certain reasons, and after the incident, Yiluo managed to activate the immense power within it by some means, leading to the fusion of the plaque with Yiluo.

In fact, the typical end results of merging directly with a higher level Transcendent item without the prerequisite Talent Sequences are almost always either death or turning into a monster.

Only a very few lucky individuals can survive such an ordeal, but even they stand on the brink of madness from then on.

Many of the Transcendents’ ascensions in the main world seem to work like this, lured into consuming the remains of higher beings in the relics, where success means ascension, and failure means death.

Perhaps, this special "plaque" was the method Wizards conceived to "inherit the Transcendent" powers during the Era of the Great Cataclysm when there were no periodic tables for Talent Sequences, not to mention knowledge of how to advance in them.

Survive it, and you live, congratulations on becoming a Transcendent; fail to resist, and it’s on to the next one.

But why was it Yiluo? Was it purely by chance?

Yiluo himself seemed to have a very high "affinity" for the "Secret Watcher" Talent Sequence, even able to use its power to a certain extent without being contaminated. Perhaps even his life was sustained by the power of the "Secret Watcher."

But as an ordinary person, he also couldn’t endure the contamination brought by the Secret Watcher, and this Talent Sequence, which could "Peering into the Truth," brought contamination that was far greater than other C-level Talent Sequences.

However, he may not necessarily die directly. Judging by his affinity, if he wholly accepted the power of "Secret Watcher," he would most likely end up becoming a monster capable of "Peering into the Truth."

If He Ao had not arrived.

It seemed that the script was supposed to be like this.

Of course, there was another possibility that Yiluo obtained the plaque and merged with the Talent Sequence within it, and all of this was just a coincidence.

He Ao leaned back in the driver’s seat, folding the empty hamburger wrapper in his hands and tossing it in the car’s trash bin.

He glanced through his "Spiritual Vision" at the dense and twisted patterns in the city sky,

The vortex beneath the city seemed even more chaotic than he had anticipated.

That fine agony did not completely vanish after his ascension and still clung to his body, its whispers echoing in his ears.

Strictly speaking, if it wasn’t for his slight tolerance to contamination and pain, he would have gone mad long ago.

The SUV continued driving between the factory buildings, and soon, clean and tidy streets emerged at the end of He Ao’s vision.

Owing to its vertical elongated shape, it did not take long to cross the Novite District.

Ahead lay the Cloud District.

Unlike the predominantly oppressive grey-white of the Novite District, buildings in the Cloud District interspersed many vibrant colors, many adopting streamlined designs, quite aesthetically pleasing.

Beyond that, the roads in the Cloud District were much smoother than those in the Novite District, lined with decorative trees whose branches were laden with snow.

There was no physical barrier between the two districts, yet it was as if an invisible wall clearly delineated them.

The SUV drove onto the clean road, then followed the navigation route northward, and soon, a towering and majestic building appeared in He Ao’s view.

The entire building had a protruding curved front and a vertical back, standing out among the generally lower surrounding structures like a crane among chickens, like a towering cliff, standing at the very peak of Wint City, the inverted "pyramid."

He Ao’s gaze moved away from that majestic building, tidied up the empty hamburger wrapper, and the SUV drove past the building’s curved front.

In front of United Industries building was a broad plaza, at the center of which was a huge circular fountain, where crystal-clear droplets constantly surged up from the core, like a flow of wealth, gathering in a pool beneath the building.

Passing United Industries, there was a broad park where He Ao parked the SUV in a nearby parking lot, then got out and walked into the park.

Many people in down jackets were strolling in the park, where the landscape trees blanketed in snow sketched a winter wonderland.

He Ao did not pause to admire this beautiful scene but quickly passed through the park to reach its deep, secluded part.

A lush, evergreen species of tree reminiscent of a pine emerged into He Ao’s view.

Behind these trees were "villas" hidden in their shade.

This was his destination, Pine Forest Street.

It was just past afternoon, and there was still some time before seven in the evening, giving He Ao an opportunity to retrieve his "Coffin Lid" and Harpoon.

He now had a spacious SUV that could accommodate these items.

He Ao glanced at the road ahead and slowly moved forward along the street.

Pine Forest Street was long; He Ao walked about a kilometer before barely making out a set of closed double iron gates with the plate next to them bearing the number [Pine Forest Street 2].

But he did not immediately walk over, instead looking across at the opposite side of the gate.

A small guard booth stood in front of the villa opposite the large iron gate, with what appeared to be two security personnel inside; however, their gaze was not focused on the villa right behind their booth but intently fixed on the iron gate of Pine Forest Street 2.

He Ao’s gaze swept across the outside of the guardhouse, where a mini, hidden electronic eye was hanging at the top, aimed at the large iron gate.

It seemed that this guardhouse was not so much for maintaining the security of the villa owner behind it as it was for surveilling the residents at Pine Forest Street No. 2.

He Ao lifted his bracelet to check a location Vili had sent him not long ago.

The location was not at the front door of the villa facing Pine Forest Street, but rather at the back of the villa, down a small alley some distance away from the residence.

He tread softly beneath the thick landscape trees, turning into the side alley before entering the electronic eye’s surveillance range.

The alley was completely enclosed by the courtyard walls of the villas on either side, and He Ao walked quite a distance before reaching the spot indicated by the location mark.

There were no doors here, only two towering walls.

After a brief moment of thought, He Ao crouched down and inspected the ground beneath his feet.

It seemed that this alley seldom saw visitors, and it had been a long time since anyone had tended to it, looking quite old.

He Ao placed his hand on the ground in front of him and lightly tapped. A faint hollow sound echoed in the alley.

After a short pause, He Ao raised his bracelet and sent a message to Vili: [I have arrived.]

The reply came back quickly: [Wait a moment.]

Then, after about a few minutes, with a soft ’click’, the ground in front of He Ao was slowly raised by mechanical supports, revealing a deep staircase leading downward.

A figure was standing on the staircase, none other than Carrie, whom He Ao had seen before.

At this moment, she was dressed in a black and white maid outfit that was quite stylish, she glanced around, and then quickly said to He Ao, "This way."

He Ao gave a slight nod and stepped onto the stairs.

The opened passage slowly closed.

Below the stairs was a long corridor, glowing with light. Carrie led the way with He Ao following behind her, speeding along the corridor.

"This was an escape route prepared by the former owner," Carrie explained as they walked, "Now, Miss uses it as a passage to enter and exit the villa."

He Ao touched the walls of the passage; they were very solid and seemed to have been specially reinforced and thickened. On either side of the passage were closed doors, each marked with labels like ’Storage Room 1’, ’Storage Room 2’.

It seemed that in addition to serving as an escape route, this passage could also function as some kind of underground shelter.

After walking about five or six hundred meters along this passage, a new staircase appeared before He Ao.

Carrie pressed a switch beside the staircase, and with a clear sound, something at the end of the staircase slowly opened, and bright light poured down from above.

Carrie stepped aside and gestured for He Ao to proceed.

He Ao lifted his feet and climbed the staircase.

Soon, the scenery above the staircase gradually came into He Ao’s view.

It was a hall bathed in soft light, with a large crystal chandelier hanging from the center, presenting a ’deep well’ shape about twenty meters in height, with curved walls all around.

Solid wood-colored, curved bookshelves lined the curved walls, reaching the top of the hall and housing countless books—like a towering ’book tower’ encircling He Ao.

Between the books hung several oil paintings, serving as embellishments.

He Ao sensed something and looked up to the highest point of the ’book tower’, where, amongst the dense twist of patterns in the void, a frosted glass cabinet was embedded. Inside the cabinet appeared to be a delicate oil painting, its contents obscured by the frosted glass.

Yet through He Ao’s ’Spiritual Vision’, the ’image’ of the painting clearly presented itself beyond the ’frosted glass cabinet’.

At the painting’s core, an elderly figure was kneeling on the ground, bowing in prayer, with bright light from the sky showering down, evenly spread over his body.

The elderly person looked close to death, but the painting depicted him as though he were an infant, exuding a twisted and bizarre sense of ’sanctity’ throughout.

He Ao withdrew his ’vision’ and moved it downward, to find a small note with the name of the painting below it.

"Baptism," a gentle female voice spoke near his ear, it was Vili, standing next to him, also looking up at the painting sheltered in the frosted glass cabinet, "My father said he bought this painting from an Antique Merchant, it seems to be the work of a great Painter from the early days of the Federation.

"However, he never let anyone in our family see the painting. As soon as it was bought, he covered it with frosted glass and hung it at the highest place."

She looked quizzically at He Ao’s profound gaze, "Is there something wrong with this painting?"

In her mind, although He Ao seemed young, he was a powerful Transcendent with extensive knowledge of mysticism.

"There’s nothing wrong,"

He Ao withdrew his gaze, "He’s right to not let you look at this painting."

The ’strangeness’ of the painting itself should come from its subject matter, rather than the painting itself; as long as ordinary people can’t see the picture within, they won’t be affected by it.

What made He Ao somewhat puzzled was that the painting did indeed possess a kind of marvelousness, but that marvelousness wasn’t very strong.

It didn’t seem to match the ’Bit Position’ engulfed by ’distorted patterns’.

"You seem young, yet sometimes you speak as if you’re much older,"

Vili seemed to fall into some sort of memory, speaking softly, "My father always said the same, telling me not to be curious and not to look at this painting."

In a world filled with strangeness, most of the time, the more curious you are, the faster you die.

He Ao turned to glance at her, "Your father must be a celebrity?"

Not all the oil paintings hanging in this hall are transcendental items, the majority are just ordinary paintings. From the memories He Ao inherited from Vian, he knew that most of these paintings were authentic masterpieces, with the cheapest one worth millions of federal coins.

There were many similar paintings in the Vian household as well.

There weren’t many people in Wint City who could boast such wealth.

"His name was Skone,"

Vili paused, whispering softly.

"Founder of United Industries?"

He Ao looked up at her.

Meanwhile, Eve was detailing information about Skone to him via a hidden Bluetooth earpiece.

Yiluo was not aware of these details.

Skone was one of the founders of United Industries, as well as its first board chairman and CEO.

The current Novite District was built under his supervision.

Seventeen years ago, he stepped down from the positions of chairman of the board and CEO of United Industries, and fourteen years ago, he was assassinated during a public event together with his wife.

He Ao roughly understood why Vili seemed to command such high prestige at the ’Twilight Society’.

This young lady was likely the Twilight Society’s behind-the-scenes financial backer.

"Yes," Vili smiled, looking at He Ao, "So, now that you know my identity, do you regret transferring that bracelet money of over five thousand to me?"

He Ao nodded along, "I do regret it."

"That’s really perfunctory,"

Vili sighed, "Let me return your snowboard and harpoon to you first."

Two domestic robots came over, carrying He Ao’s metal lid and harpoon.

"And then,"

Vili paused and raised her hand.

A flying robot emerged from behind her, reaching the highest part of the hall, sliding a long wooden case down from the top shelf, and flew it all the way to her.

She reached out to catch the long wooden case.

Then her body swayed with the weight of the case, almost falling over.

He Ao quickly reached out, supporting the case to help stabilize her.

"Cough cough,"

She coughed, pretending as if nothing had happened, her face flushed as she struggled to embrace the case and opened its lid, "This might suit you."

Carrie immediately stood behind her, helping to support the wooden case with her hands.

He Ao looked up into the wooden case.

A knight’s sword with a white hue, separated from its scabbard, its blade etched with intricate designs and reflecting a soft, cool light, appeared in his view.

"This sword is called ’Consistency’,"

Vili watched He Ao, explaining softly, "It is said to be a weapon forged by a wizard during the Era of the Great Cataclysm, and only those who steadfastly hold to their own convictions can wield it."